The Golden Compass
First of a three part fantasy/sci-fi series. Some people hate it because of it's anti God message but it's a great read. I found it hard to put down. There's even a Snopes article about the film adaptation.

Ethically uncomplicated stem cells

Science is rescuing us from moral mazes says Andrew Sullivan in last weekend’s Sunday Times. He was referring to the discovery that stem cells could be made from human skin cells. Unfortunately the scientists who made the discovery had to use a cancer gene and a retro virus but this should be a big boost for this branch of research and remove a lot of the ethical questions surrounding the destruction of embryos. (Via Dangerousmeta)

Doomsday brings DOOM up to date with modern technology. Retro Gamer magazine features DOOM on it’s front cover. I can’t believe it was released in 1993! I remember playing deathmatch DOOM II in college, and before then trying to deathmatch against my friend Brian using a modem and calling his house. Doomsday available for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows. It works really well on my Macbook. I spent an enjoyable hour on it last night blasting monsters, soldiers, sergeants and commandos. I love mouse look! Watch out for those glowing fireballs! Unfortunately the pressure of supporting a GPLed product drove one of it’s developers away. The Duke Nukem guys take a much harder line:

IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS:

Tough luck. Do NOT contact us with bug reports at this time. Do NOT contact us if you can’t get it to build. Do NOT contact us for copies of the game. In fact, if you aren’t sending us code, don’t contact us at all.

4 thoughts on “Ethically uncomplicated stem cells”

The scientists who made this discovery have already stated that Bush’s restrictions on funding set back this area of science by years and that the discovery doesn’t obviate the need for embryonic cells.

In all honesty the debate is ridiculous. Every day thousands of embryos are spontaneously aborted. Pregnancy is a risky event and loads of things can cause it to end early. Genetics, stress, illness, diet, etc, etc. We as a society let millions of born humans starve to death and allow/cause millions more to die in war.

Even without that context I find nothing morally troubling with abortion, but within that context I find overblown concern about abortion morally troubling.

Many people do find abortion troubling though, and they have a strong voice. I see this as a step in the right direction. If you can placate those who object to embryonic cell research isn’t that a good thing?